by SlyOkami
“Playing mind games already Elder Brother?” Ivyieth asked in draconic as she pushed her way through Makaela to sit next to Erik. “What now? Slowly push through the streets and whittle away at the enemy forces I’d guess.”
“That would be the most obvious plan of attack from here on, since the Sinbens haven’t had the time to settle defences on the streets beyond those of our control. We have caught them off guard but…” Erik chuckled, “Why waste the lives of our common foot soldiers so soon? They are to be the future citizens of this empire after all.”
“Then…what? We stand our ground and wait?” Nerick asked.
“Far from it…” Erik chuckled again, then turning to Makaela. “Send them in.”
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North Lahihr
15:30
“Stack them! Quickly!” The guard officer shouted as dozens of armoured men and women ran back and forth from the barracks down the street, some carrying spike-walls in groups while the rest heaved barrels and crates they found. Building a make-shift wall, a barricade along the main road.
And as they did, coming from down the street and running towards the opposite direction, were even more citizens. Panicked and afraid, men, women and children ran past the busy guards.
“Make way! Hurry and move out of the way!” Several guards said as they directed the agitated mass of people coming their way, slowing their work.
“Sargent,” Spoke out one guard to his commanding officer as they arrived with the stampede of citizens.
The Sargent sized the boy up, (“A Scout? Oh please be a messenger from the palace!”) he thought, seeing the guard’s tired demeanour from running. “Report son.”
The guard stood at attention as best as he could, shivering with every roar of thunder from above. “M-Message from the commander sir, you’re to hold this post and send out scouts to the front! I-I’ll report back what they find!” The guard said through shaky breaths.
“Gah…I’m already low on manpower here!” The Sargent grumbled, “Fine, go.” He then said, gesturing down the street as it slowly cleared up from non-combatants.
“G-Go?” The messenger repeated in question.
“You’re here, you’re going to report back to the commander no? Then go scout yourself boy!” The Sargent exclaimed, “Take three with you, but that’s all I can give away!” He then told the messenger now scout, after seeing his pleading expression…
But all seemed to pause for a moment, as rain began to suddenly fall from the sky.
“Oh just fucking perfect,” One guard swore in annoyance as she helped set down another line of spiked walls.
“None of that soldier, keep it up come on! Some rain ain’t gonna do you no harm but those bloodthirsty bastards out there sure will!” The Sargent shouted out, and the guards continued their chain of supply.
But again…everything suddenly stopped.
As something else seemed to accompany the overbearing roar of thunder from above…
A rhythmic thumping…like footsteps, they got closer with each step.
The guards stopped what they were doing and followed the sound with their eyes…Each looked down the street, now empty of civilians it lay in shadows and covered by the rain.
“What is that sound?” The messenger asked as he also stared down the street.
“Whatever it is…” The Sargent mused as he glanced at a puddle nearby, the water rippling with each beat. “It’s big.” He said, “Mages at the ready! Everybody else grab a crossbow!” Then shouting out in command.
The well-trained guards obeyed.
Crossbowmen formed behind the make-shift barricades, over three dozen of them. While those who had nowhere to stand took up a spear and stood behind them on the ground, totalling over a few hundred.
And behind them, were the few mages at their disposal, barely a dozen themselves.
The Sargent grimaced at his command, they were the furthest from the palace so their numbers were lacking in comparison to the rest of the blockades. So to him, it only made sense that the rebels would attack here…
“But how did they confirm our numbers so quickly?” He pondered, only then realized a great mistake in his judgement…
As the sound of footsteps, and even the roaring of thunder…were overtaken by the crashes of magic and the harrowing sound of dying screams. The sounds came from all over their right, “The other blockades…They’re under attack and not us?” He mused out loud, even sighing in relief.
(“Did the enemy forgo scouting and simply picked a spot to charge through?”) The Sargent pondered…
Yet again, only too late did he realize just how little he understood his current predicament.
“S-Sargent no t-they’re…” The messenger stuttered as he pointed down the road, then immediately rushing behind the barricade they stood before.
“Wh-Hey!” The Sargent called out after him as he watched the messenger scurry away in fear, then slowly turning to face the road himself.
His eyes, widening to their fullest as the hulking being was now visible, but not fully due to the clouds and rain.
A machine, roaring with magical energy that flowed through it and creaking with every movement. Large, half the height of the nearby buildings and entirely made of a dark grey metal that glistened its own magical light through the falling rain.
The ground shuddered with each step it took, revealing more of itself the closer it came.
Humanoid in shape but hunched back and low, its thick arms held up ahead of itself like two massive cannons strapped to the sides. Its legs and torso though were riddled with strange iron plates seemingly facing the wrong way and not forward…Allowing the rider within to see ahead.
Jin chuckled wickedly as his goliath of metal approached the terror-struck barricade of guards, his eyes just as wide as theirs but not in fear…Instead, he was filled with maddened amusement for what was about to occur.
“Fire…” The Sargent choked out the word at first, seemingly getting itself caught in his throat, scared back inside from the sight before him. “F-Fire!” He then shouted out in command, stuttering as he himself rushed back behind the barricades.
And the guards woke from their paralyzed terror, the crossbowmen finally taking aim and letting loose a barrage of bolts upon the mechanized golem. The iron bolts tearing through the rain as it fell, blacking out the road ahead of Jin.
As he pulled on a lever, and the plates of metal before him suddenly shifted.
Forming a massive shield of iron around the two cannons, and completely deflecting every single bolt that did not miss.
Pulling the second lever, the machine suddenly lowered itself, slamming the shield down and taking aim. A third lever pushed the cannons out…
And as his hand hovered over the fourth lever…Jin’s grin twitched with excitement.
“Oh just fucking pull it already!” Tania hissed at him from the golem’s back where she held onto.
“S-Shit, I am okay!?” Jin exclaimed back at her, then suddenly pulling the lever.
The entire machine shook as magical energy formed inside the cannons, as slowly a crimson light within grew brighter and brighter with each passing second…
“F-f-u-uc-c-k-y-y-o-u-u-!” Jin stuttered in exclamation from the entire thing shaking around him.
And the magical energy suddenly burst out of the cannons into a flurry of blazing magical missiles, the sheer heat meeting the rain causing a large smoke screen of steam to form throughout the road.
And as the boiling rain reached the barricade, each guard whispered out a prayer, before the very air ahead of them exploded into flames.
Several dozen were blown to bits, and several more were thrown aside by the blasts, as the rest behind them looked on in terror. There was no chant, not a word and this much firepower was unleashed upon them within mere seconds.
Even the mages at the back were stunned by the sight.
“Rain upon it!” The Sa
rgent exclaimed in a groan, forcing himself to stand after being thrown aside by a blast. “Blow that thing apart!” He ordered whilst glaring at the group of mages, who after glancing at one another each began their chants.
Hope filling each of them as they saw the machine’s cannons laying dark and unpowered, smoking from the attack. Seeming like the weapon couldn’t refire in time.
“Crackle of light, the flashing brightness of life which takes! Strikethrough my enemies! Lightning School; Triple Bolt!” Each mage chanted, raising their staffs ahead as lightning formed at the tips of each before suddenly flashing forth at great speed.
A dozen bolts, each breaking apart midway and tripling in number, creating a flurry of lightning soaring towards Jin’s shield. The crackling energy pushing the steam aside as it soared down the road…
Revealing, as each bolt suddenly collided into one another…
“Bound Spell; Store.”
Tania standing ahead of the iron golem, her glaive raised ahead of herself into which each bolt of lightning surged, absorbing the magical energy entirely. Then taking a golden glow…As Tania smirked, taking aim at not the already destroyed barricade, not at the hundreds of spearmen behind it…But at the mages who stood at the very back.
“Bound Spell; Release!” Tania chanted, and at her words the weapon’s glow turned a dark crimson before releasing a shockwave of flame ahead.
The wall of flame soared through the road, trailing steam in its path before quickly reaching the mages. All too fast for them to react, before the blazing attack incinerated each of them to ash.
“N-No wa-way…” The Sargent whispered with wide eyes, staring at where his mages once stood, where now lay a patch of burned ground and nothing else. Slowly he turned to face the enemy, “Just two?…Just two of them did…this?” He asked nobody in particular, his expression of fear turning into maddened amusement as he began to laugh with hysteria.
As he fell to his knees, then looked up at the blackened sky above. “Gods…what have we done? What have we done to incur this wrath?” The Sargent asked.
“Are you a religious man then?” Asked a harrowing voice from behind him, as Kailu appeared out of nowhere. The young Xilfir standing alone whilst surrounded by frozen men and women, each armed but not so ready to fight anymore. His glanced at each of them, his golden eyes filled with smoking blackness, the same darkness that formed tendrils all over his body.
His cold gaze, moving through each guard until it fell upon the Sargent before him. “For what has this wrath occurred upon you, you dare ask?” Kailu chuckled coldly, as a pitch-black scythe appeared in his hands. “Your people hunt, kill, rape, torture and enslave ours. Then you dare ask…why?”
He laughed, unable to feel the rage he should have felt, so instead he laughed to fill the void in his heart. “The Gods aren’t listening today, so I shall be your judge in their stead.” Kailu said, as the blade of his weapon resonated with energy, as if echoing the roar of thunder back at the skies.
“I judge you guilty…All of you…Are guilty.” Kailu hissed out, as his lips curved into a wide grin. “And if you’re guilty…then I can execute you right?…Hah…Right?!” He exclaimed, slashing his massive weapon ahead and cleaving the kneeling Sargent into two pieces.
Black and green tendrils of energy trailing along his attack, oozing into the deceased guard’s body and slowly rotting it away.
And then faster than any of them could react, Kailu’s form suddenly blinked out of sight.
Appearing behind another guard, as the woman screamed in horror, as his scythe slashed her arm clean off her shoulder.
Kailu laughed, amused and entertained by her screams as the blood which soaked his face slowly drained away with the falling rain.
“More…” Kailu whispered, as his weapon blurred with speed, beheading the woman mid-scream.
“More…” He growled, his maddened eyes meeting another guard’s terrified gaze.
“Fear me more~” Kailu sang out from the overwhelming excitement that filled him, blushing even as the feeling overtook him.
As his eyes changed from a dim gold, to a bright bloody red.
And the tendrils of darkness which grew out of his body, suddenly connected with the scythe he held.
(“How much will you pay, child of shadow?”) The scythe asked.
Kailu chuckled, “I’m young, take as much time as you need.” He told it, and his own chuckle echoed back through his mind.
As the same darkness which connected him to the weapon, burst out of his back, forming a pair of skeletal wings three times his own size.
Many whimpered at the sight, many even pissed themselves.
But one poor soul, “M-Monster…” just couldn’t hold his tongue.
“No…” Kailu responded to the terrified guard, turning his cold gaze upon him. “Call us Reapers.” He told the man, before suddenly appearing two steps before his fallen form.
Kailu plunged his scythe’s blade into the man’s forehead, slashing all the way down into his chest and cleaving the head in halve. Bloody splashed out and bathed him, but he did not care. “For all those who gaze upon me…are doomed to be harvested.” Kailu hissed out, tearing his weapon out of the dead guard and slicing him further as he did.
The sound of tearing flesh and leather, the sound of grinding bone and metal.
The sight of another of their comrades being cut down like an animal…
Awakened something within each guard, as all snapped out of their petrified state.
As their fear rose to a new level, each man and woman entering a state of fight or flight.
As they were faced with a true monster, they either picked up their weapons to fight, or the more foolish of them…turned and ran.
But that monster cared not for which they did, as he simply chuckled.
“Yes…Fight back, or run…Both are equally entertaining!” Kailu exclaimed as the tendrils of death energy spiralled around his body, causing the very air around him to tremble under the sheer pressure he was producing.
“Oi, bonehead. Forget our orders!?” Tania exclaimed as she and Jin lay on the other side of the guards which surrounded him.
“No…I haven’t.” Kailu scoffed in annoyance, “Fine, you live for today.” he then said glancing at the terrified soldiers, who seeing hope all dropped their weapons and joined those who previously ran.
“Hah, cowards.” Jin mused as he turned his machine around, then seeing a button before him he suddenly pressed it…
Then construct’s feet opened up to reveal wheels, which pushed themselves out of the feet and lowered. Raising the entire construct in turn, and allowing Jin to move around more easily. “Huh, so that’s what that does.”
“Please stop pressing and pulling on shit without even knowing what it does! You almost blew my head off earlier too!” Tania scolded him as she and Kailu climbed onto the construct’s back.
Jin laughed, “Hey I gotta press and pull shit to know what it does! How else am I supposed to blow those fuckers up otherwise-”
“Just…Move.” Kailu then hissed, annoyed by their pointless argument.
And hearing the malice in his voice, both bandits went quiet for the rest of the road.
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East Lahihr
Sand Palace
18:00
“Sidi, please calm yourself.” The Guard Commander said as he watched the city’s young lord pace about the Sand Palace’s entrance whilst he stood at the door.
“Calm myself?” The lord asked as he briefly paused in his steps, turning to glare at the city guard leader. “Commander Katheer, my city is under fucking attack and if you ask me to calm myself once more I shall do so by running you through with my blade!” He exclaimed before returning to his pacing.
Katheer sighed, “Yes, but might I remind you of the Sultan’s generous gift to us…” he said gesturing at the army of Sin Wyrms standing at attention before them and spanning
most of the large courtyard. “We should make use of them Sidi, and with due haste if we wish to end this quickly.”
Then explaining as he moved to gesture at the sky visible over the palace’s inner walls. “Those clouds are how the enemy got over our walls and inside, notice Sidi how they are now no longer entering the city but instead are circulating the land outside the city’s walls.”
“And what of it commander? The enemy has power of the bloody weather, am I to fear being struck by lightning!?” The lord exclaimed seemingly growing more anxious with every step he took.
“No, but we should fear the enemy growing in numbers. The slave camps are all kept outside our clean city, I believe the enemy is breaking those slaves out as we speak and recruiting them in.” Katheer reasoned as he moved to stand in the Lord’s way, “Emir, Arshad al-Farman, how do you wish to be remembered?”
Arshad stopped his pacing as he was faced with the giant of a man that was his guard commander, “What do you mean?”
“Sidi, let it not be written that you are a coward, it would break your late father spirit’s heart. Let us attack the enemy while they waste time setting up a defence in our own city! We have both the power to rival them, and the numbers. But the latter won’t remain true for long, not if we keep waiting.” Katheer explained with great resolve.
Lord Arshad seemed calmer, but not entirely convinced by the commander’s reasoning. “You’re asking me to take all our forces and push upon the enemy. You’re asking me to leave my citizens unprotected from an enemy that can fly over our very heads, a great risk is what you’re asking me for commander.”
“But it is a risk wor-” Katheer was about to urge him further, when he noticed a messenger rush into the courtyard. “Well, news has arrived from the front. Maybe we can come upon a conclusion through it.”
Arshad sighed, “Yes, yes maybe.” He said then turning to face the stairs himself as the out-of-breath guard dashed towards them.